A Reality Lost
by momojinxie
Summary: Hating to be the bearer of bad news, Nightwing sends Wally, M'gann and Conner to deliver the message to Jade on Artemis's death. Wally deals with his own internal conflicts from lying to his best friends and the reality that Artemis; dead or not was out of his life for the time being. Invasion. One-shot. Wally Centric.


I owe Irenerb a real Spitefire fic. but I wrote this in the meantime. Wally Centric. Please review. Takes place during Invasion. And as for my regular readers please be patient with me, university has been pretty hectic and I'm going to try and upload a story at least once every other week from now on.

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**A Reality Lost**

_This plan better work...So help me God!..Dick's my best friend, he always has been... but if anything happens to my girlfriend...My Artemis...on this elaborate mission...I don't know what I'd do..._

In order for Nightwing's plan to go through without a hitch, everyone truly needed to be believe that Kaldur was evil and that Artemis was dead. That entailed delivering the message to Jade; There were to be no lose ends. Wally met with Conner and M'gann outside of Roy's apartment. The ginger boys eyes red, and puffy. It wasn't so much that he was acting that Artemis was dead. The very thought of his beautiful girlfriend dying caused tears to pour. All he had to do was remember the Fail Safe mission and of the emotions came flooding back.

The Kryptonian placed a strong hand on his shoulder. "Wally...you don't have to be here...M'gann and I can handle it...go home...grieve..." his blue eyes were soft and comforting. Wally and Artemis were part of his family. They were some of the few people that he actually cared about.

He shook his head. "No...I need to do this." he pressed on._ Conner...Megan...please forgive me for lying to you..._ He thought to himself. He knew his thoughts were safe because M'gann would never read his mind. Taking a small breath he knocked on the door of Roy's apartment. He could hear the sound of a small child laughing on the other side.

After his talk with Jade, Roy knew that he had to be a real father for Lian. Which was much easier now that he found the real Roy. The red haired man played on the ground with Lian as Jade was in the kitchen cooking dinner. Hearing the knock she smiled. "I'll get it." she smirked "You know this domestic house wife thing just might work out." she set down the soup spoon and walked to the door. She blinked in shock. "Oh lookie here, the children have come to visit. Thanks kiddies but Roy's doing great. No intervention needed." she gave them a sly smile and winked.

As she was about to close the door the Kryptonian put his foot between it, looking deep into her eyes he gave her a sympathetic look. "It's about Artemis..."

Hearing the tone in his voice she opened the door; her eyes wide in fear. Roy stood up holding his daughter to his chest. "Come in guys" he looked at his friends. Walking deeper inside the apartment, Roy became wary of his friends not making themselves at home. "Guys...what is it?"

M'gann glanced at Wally and he nodded. Stepping forward her eyes began to water. "Artemis...went on a mission with the team recently...To make sure that the mission to mars went as planned..."

Jade's eyes widened. "Yeah...we saw on tv that the mission failed...but where's Artemis? Did she get hurt?"

Wally took a moment and gazed down at the grown. It was hard to lie to Jade, he knew that if Dick had lied to him he'd never forgive him. _But to ensure Artemis safety and the mission I HAVE to..._

Roy grabbed his car keys "It's alright, Come on Jade I'll take you to the League's hospital."

It broke M'gann's heart to see them like this. Still hopeful. "She's gone..." she whispered. "She..." her eyes watered. "She was stabbed...Nightwing tried to revive her but...it was too late...we didn't reach her in time...the blade penetrated too deep...she lost too much blood and..." She began to choke on her own words as her sobs resurfaced.

Jade's eyes widened as she fell to her knees. Roy watched stunned, too shocked to move. He watched his wife clenched her fist as tears streamed down her cheek. After everything that's happened in her life. Every battle that they fought she'd never ever kill her. She glared at Wally and lunged at him. He allowed her to slap him before speeding off. Roy reacted quickly and set his daughter down to restrain his wife. "Jade!"

"No! You promised you'd take care of her!" she cried. Roy rocked her and kissed her hair. "She was my sister!" she sob and heaved in Roy's arms "My baby sister..." The archer's eyes widened. In the six years he's known Jade, he's never seen her emotional. She always hid behind her sarcastic and snarky remarks, but with the loss of her sister everything came pouring out.

"Jade I am so sorry...I tried to talk her out of it...I tried to protect her but..."

"I hate you! You said you two would be safer! You promised to protect her! Who did this to my sister!"

Wally stiffened and looked down. _Dick wanted me to tell Jade because keeping it under wraps would make it seem suspicious but telling Jade about Kaldur might ruin everything. _

Conner looked down "I'm sorry for your loss...but it was Kaldur..."

"Conner!" Wally called out.

Roy let go of Jade as he stared at Conner. "That's not possible...He may have switched sides but Kaldur would have never hurt Artemis much less kill her. He must have been framed." _Not Kaldur no...he can't..."_She was a sister him...a sister to all of us..."

"She was a sister to me! You'll never understand what you did!" Jade cried out. "She was my sister...how can she be gone...?" she cried into her hands.

"Nightwing was there...he couldn't get to her soon enough...Kaldur stabbed and killed her and they deserve to know the truth." he glared at Wally "Why should we protect him anyway? He turned his back on us, he took away your girlfriend!" he crossed his arms over his chest.

"How can you let him do that...take her away..." Jade glared. "How dare you claim to love her"

Wally glared at Jade's cold words. "I understand more than you'll know! She was my girlfriend. I loved her! I can't imagine a life without her." Deep down he knew that the death was staged, but he couldn't help but to fill with anger from her accusing him of not caring.

"You went 16 years without her!" she glared at him. "Do you know what it's like being born and having a best friend? Because that's what I was to Artemis" she looked down "Even when I left her I watched over her and protected her."

Roy looked down and took a heavy breath. "Outside guys please..." he shooed them out to talk to them in the hallway.

Jade gave a final look to Wally. "After I slit Kaldur's throat, I'm coming for you" she glared.

In the hall the archer rubbed the back of his neck. "I can't believe this is happening... I knew that losing Tula pushed Kaldur off the deep end but killing..." he shook his head. "Thank you for telling us...Have you guys spoken to Ollie?"

M'gann looked down. "Yeah...he's blaming himself..." she hugged her arm.

Roy shook his head in defeat "He's always blaming himself...I'm sorry I can't do more...I'd love to help you guys find Kaldur, but I have a family I need to take care of... A daughter to raise... I just started getting my life back together..."

Conner nodded "We understand. Do what you need to for your daughter." His eyes shifted for a moment. "Artemis wasn't the only loss we took that mission...they captured La'gann..." M'gann stiffened as she looked down.

"I'm sorry...but look, I have to get back to my daughter...an try and calm Jade down before she does something she regrets." he turned back into his house. It wasn't a big secret that Roy didn't really care for La'gann. He just didn't trust him. And for lack of a better word, he found him fishy. Looking in his living room he noticed his daughter sitting on the floor with her doll and his wife no where to be found. The window was open and her knives were missing. He sighed and sat with Lian. "Hey kid...promise me you won't be like your mom and I...how about you do good in the world without fighting." The red haired girl blinked at him and giggled.

He smirked "Yeah I thought so." He had to be strong for his daughter, he had to be strong for everyone else.

Wally looked down, so many thoughts clouded his mind. "Conner...why would you tell Jade it was Kaldur? You know she's going to go after him."

The clone glared at him. "Because it wasn't our place to hide it from her..." he followed M'gann into the bioship. "If it was me that lost someone I loved...I'd want to know so that I could avenge her..." he glanced over at M'gann as she set up the bioship for take off.

He followed behind quietly. _I can't argue...He's right..This is going to be harder than we bargained for..._

After a long night of delivering the sad messages, Wally returned to his empty house in Palo Alto. He looked around the living room sadly. He could see her everywhere; Her cooking in the kitchen, them making love on the couch, her beautiful smile. "Oh Arty..." he sighed and walked into his bedroom. Draping his jacket on the chair he laid on his bed. _It smells like her..._His eyes narrowed as he gripped his soft sheets. He didn't know how long this undercover mission was going to take, he didn't even know if his Artemis would come back to him, but what he did know was that...at least for now...this was his reality...

End.

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Just a simple Wally centric one shot. I know it's a bit sad and not my usual tone but I love Spitfire and I have no idea where the storyline in YJ:Invasion is going, but it'll be back this Saturday, and if you haven't read it yet, I recommend everyone read the new Young Justice companion comic. Issue 20 is Young Justice Invasion and it has everything for your shipping hearts!. Please review, I'm also working on a Chalant and a proper Spitfire.


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